My Genealogy Hound

FREDERICK A. FULLER, an old and well-known citizen of Jamestown, who has been identified with the progress and prosperity of that thriving city for over fifty years, is a son of Frederick A. and Rachel (Gordon) Fuller, and was born in Rutland, Vermont, May 24, 1813. Frederick A. Fuller, is a lineal descendant of Dr. Samuel Fuller, who was one of the “Pilgrim Fathers,” who came over in the Mayflower and who was one of the signers on board of that historic bark of the immortal civil compact of the Puritans, the oldest as well as one of the noblest written constitutions of the new world. Dr. Fuller was the grandfather of Ebenezer Fuller of Plymouth, whose son, Ebenezer Fuller, Jr., was born in 1695, and died in 1759. He settled in 1731, at Hebron, Connecticut, where his farm is still in the hands of his descendants. He married Joanna Gray and had one child, Ebenezer Fuller (great-grandfather), who was born September 25, 1715, in Massachusetts and died at Hebron. He married, on September 30, 1 738, Mary Rowley, by whom he had four sons and two daughters. One of these sons, Roger Fuller (grandfather), was born September 25, 1773, and died September 24, 1819. He was a farmer, lived on the home farm at Hebron and was married four times. His wives were Martha Phelps, by whom he had five sons and four daughters; Violetta Taylor, who bore him one son and two daughters; Louisa Taylor and Louisa Kenney. The third son by the first marriage was Frederick A. Fuller (father), who was born in Tolland county. Conn., March 1, 1775, and removed to Rutland, Vermont, where he was a successful merchant and where he died July 20, 1832. He was a federalist and whig, married January 20, 1811. Rachel Gordon and reared a family of five children: Samuel G., born in 1811, and lost on “The Home” on his return to Charleston, S. C., where he was a merchant; Frederick A., Frank, born May 20, 1815; Dudley B.; and Mary Ann. Mrs. Fuller, who died in Jamestown, October 28, 1856, was a daughter of Capt. Samuel Gordon, a Revolutionary officer, who was at Yorktown and afterwards commanded a company in the war of 1812. He died at Troy, this State, aged ninety-four and was a son of John Gordon, who came from Scotland to America as a British soldier in the French and Indian war, and afterwards settled at Belchtown, Conn, where he died. He had four children, one son and three daughters.

Frederick A. Fuller received a common school education at Rutland, Vermont, where he learned the jewelry business with Benjamin Lord. After an apprenticeship of five years he went to New York city, where he was employed for three years in the jewelry establishment of H. & D. Tarbox. In 1836 he returned to Rutland where he remained three years. He then returned to this State, and in July, 1841, came to Jamestown, where for forty years he conducted one of the leading jewelry houses of western New York. In 1881 he transferred his jewelry business to his eldest son, Frederick A. Fuller, Jr., in order to retire from active life. He has been a member of the First Presbyterian church of Jamestown since 1857, and is a republican in politics.

At Rutland, Vt., on June 19, 1838, he married Emily Rathbone, who was a daughter of Waite and Betsy Rathbone, of Tinmouth, Vt., where Mr. Rathbone was a prominent iron manufacturer. Mrs. Fuller died February 5, 1886, and on October 3, 1890, Mr. Fuller married Mrs. Martha B. Marsh, daughter of Dr. Boyer, of Clarendon, Vt. By his first marriage Mr. Fuller had four children: Frederick A., Jr.; Dr. Dudley B., born March 10, 1843, served throughout the last war as an assistant surgeon and died in 1889, at San Quentin, California, where he had practiced medicine from 1866; William Rathbone, born February 1, 1843; and Dr. Charles Gordon, who was born August 7, 1856, graduated from a medical college in Chicago, then took a full course at a leading medical college in New York and is now a practicing physician of the former city.

Hon. Frederick A. Fuller, Jr., the eldest son, and a prominent democrat of western New York, was born in Rutland, Vermont, April 10, 1839, but was reared at Jamestown where he received his education in the academy of that place and then learned the trade of jeweler with his father, with whom he remained in business from 1857 to 1866. He then went to New York city, where he was engaged for nine years in importing and in doing a jobbing business in diamonds and fine watches. In 1881 he returned to Jamestown and became proprietor of his father’s large and important jewelry establishment which he has conducted successfully ever since. On May 24, 1866, he married Cornelia Ludlow Benedict, of Brooklyn, a daughter of Roswell S. Benedict, formerly senior member of the old and well-known shoe manufacturing firm of Benedict, Hall & Co., of New York city, and a member of the English Benedict family of Canaan, Conn., which came to Brooklyn in an early day and is one of the old families of that city. Mr. Benedict is one of the original members of Plymouth church, whose influence has been National in extent and character. To Mr. and Mrs. Fuller have been born three sons: Roswell Seymour and Clifford Rathbone, born in Brooklyn, August 1, 1871, and February 17, 1873; and Gordon Carter, born in Jamestown, August 3, 1884. He and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian church. He is a member of Mt. Moriah Lodge, No. 145, F. & A. M., and a director of the City National Bank of Jamestown, and the Rochester Mutual Relief society. Frederick A. Fuller, Jr., has always been a democrat in politics, is serving his third consecutive term as a member of the board of education and has frequently been a delegate to Democratic State conventions. In 1884 he was elected as the Cleveland and Hendricks presidential elector representing the Thirty-fourth Congressional District, composed of the counties of Chautauqua, Allegany and Cattaraugus. At the meeting of the Electoral College held at the Capitol in the City of Albany, on the third day of December, 1884, Mr. Fuller, with Hon. Erastus Corning, of Albany, were appointed the special messengers to convey the sealed Electoral vote of the State of New York, for President and Vice President of the United States to the seat of government.